


The Stranger Known

by allieivymiller



Category: The Medoran Chronicles - Lynette Noni
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Betrayal, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-04
Updated: 2021-02-04
Packaged: 2021-03-15 20:07:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,928
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29195055
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/allieivymiller/pseuds/allieivymiller
Summary: Before Vardaesia was released, I had a prediction about what would happen when Roka woke up, and he could remember that Alex was Aeylia. This is that storyIt is set after the events of Graevale, ignoring the fact that Alex went to Tia Auras.
Relationships: Alexandra Jennings & Niyx Raedon, Alexandra Jennings/Roka Dalmarta
Kudos: 3





	The Stranger Known

The doorway took Alex straight to the floating island of Draekora the Meyarins were still living on, for the time being, and she was delighted to notice the atmosphere of joy. She could feel it, as soon as she walked through the door, but she may have been biased by the peals of laughter ringing out across the camp. Since she knew there was nothing else to celebrate, she realised Roka must have woken up, and she quickened her pace.  
  
As she made her way through the tents, much of the laughter and joyous sounds broke off when their occupants lay their eyes on her. Some of them started to follow her, and she got a strong sense of deja vu. By the time she made it to Roka’s tent, there was silence in the camp and Alex had a large following.  
  
Feeling uncomfortable, she reached to open the flap to enter Roka’s tent, just as it moved aside.  
  
Roka was coming out, but as soon as he saw Alex, he froze, and his eyes darkened.  
  
“Aeylia,” he said, but it was more of a growl.  
  
Alex swallowed and stood straighter. She had forgotten that all the Meyarins had their memories back, and therefore remembered the face of Aeylia. She glanced back at the crowd who had followed her and noted the curious and hostile glances.  
  
She looked back at Roka, swallowed, and said, “Yes. I’m sorry.”  
  
A look of disbelief crossed his eyes and he took a step forward. “You’re sorry. That is what you have to say? When all this, everything that has happened, is _your fault?_ All you can say is _sorry?_ ”  
  
She flinched, his words cutting her to the core because she knew what he said was true. It _was_ all her fault, and all she _could_ say was ‘sorry’.  
  
But Roka wasn’t finished. He stepped closer again, invading her space. “I lost my brother because of you. I lost my mother, because of you. I lost—”he choked back a sob”—I lost my father, because of you. And you had the nerve to _befriend_ me. To come to Meya and try to _help_.” He spat the words out like they were vile in his mouth.  
  
She looked him in the eyes, not backing away, because she couldn’t, not after everything that had happened. But she still winced at the look in his eyes; their golden colour combined with the fury in them—fury at _her_ —so like his brother’s.  
  
“I’m sorry,” she whispered again. “I didn’t know—”  
  
“It doesn’t matter,” he said coldly. “I don’t care anymore. I don’t care that you are supposedly the only one who can defeat him, my brother. I don’t care. You are going to die.”  
  
Alex’s eyes widened, more at the fact that he said the words in the common tongue, rather than reverting to Meyarin. He was so furious; he wanted her to know what was coming, even though he knew she could speak fluent Meyarin.  
  
Before she could say anything—to calm him down or in her own defence—he drew his sword from his scabbard and swung it at her. Knowing she had no choice, she calmly met his blade with her own, the blue flames wrapping up her arm comfortably.  
  
His eyes widened when she met his strike, and then the anger, the fury, took over once more and he swung at her again. He continued to attack, advancing down on her, and she gave ground, meeting his attacks but not returning any. When they reached the centre of the circle that had formed around them, she stopped and stood firm. Deciding to take a stand, she went on the attack, opening small nicks and cuts along Roka’s arms and legs, all of which healed quickly but chipped away at his anger.  
  
Soon fear replaced that anger, and he thrust his sword forwards, aiming to impale her and finish it quickly, a move normally frowned upon by the Meyarins. It was a manoeuvre that Niyx had attacked her with frequently during their training sessions weeks ago, because it was the hardest to defend against. She reacted instinctively, silently thanking Niyx and the stars for all the training.  
  
Roka’s eyes widened when she easily deflected his blade, and his anger renewed. “You’ve been training,” he roared, “with _Niyx?_ ”  
  
She flinched at the sound of his name, said in anger and disgust, and deflected his sloppy attack. He was distracted, so she took the opportunity presented to her and sent his sword spinning across the circle in a series of fast movements. It landed with a thump, but Alex kept her eyes on Roka, knowing he wouldn’t give up that easy.  
  
“We trusted you!” he roared. “You proved to us that you weren’t working with Aven, that you were on our side. But you were training with _Niyx?_ ” His eyes darkened further than Alex had thought possible. Seething, he said, “I’m going to kill him!”  
  
Alex’s eyes widened at the threat, at the hate that was pouring out in all directions. She felt her heart strain as Roka continued.  
  
“Once I’m finished with you, I will hunt him down like the Hyroa he is and slaughter him! I will rip—”  
  
“HE’S DEAD!” Alex roared, unable to stand by and listen to his threats any more. “He’s dead,” she whispered again, swallowing back a sob. “He died to save me.”  
  
She looked up and saw his disbelieving look, so she continued, realising she may not get another chance to explain. “When I freed the draekon during my _varrungard_ , Xira heard Aven coming and realised that there was not enough time for us to both get safely away. So he grabbed ahold of me and flew with me through the _abrassa_ , and that was when he enacted _vaeliana_ with me so that I would survive the trip. He dropped me once we got to the past, and that was when the Zeltora found me and brought me to the palace. Before that point, I was not Aeylia, Roka. Everything up until then was exactly what I said it was.  
  
“I freaked out when I saw Aven, which I’m sure you now understand, fell off the balcony where Xira caught me. He brought me up to Draekora and explained, there was some council thing where the draekons decided not to kill me, and then Aes Daega showed up and said I had to go back to Meya and train with you, and that I had to pretend to be Meyarin. I didn’t want to, but she gave me no choice, and she brought me to the throne room, and you know most of what happened after that.”  
  
Alex paused, watching warily as Roka tried to calm his breathing. He was rolling his shoulders, but without a weapon in his hands, he was listening. Alex could feel the eye on her from the circle of observers, but she ignored them and kept her eyes solely on Roka.  
  
“Do you remember the time when Niyx went out hunting for a few days? When he was gone longer than expected and I started to worry?” At Roka’s hesitant nod, she continued. “I went out to the Golden Cliffs to clear my head, and just when I was about to leave I heard him moaning. When I found him, he was badly injured—like dying, injured—and—oh, you also remember when you took me to the prison thingy to talk to him? Before my _varrungard_?” She ignored the gasps of Zain and Kyia, who had joined them in the last few minutes, and kept her focus on Roka. When he nodded again, she went on, “While we were talking, he mentioned some weird stuff that I didn’t understand. But when I saw him dying, I realised what he was talking about, and what I did. I, um…” she trailed off, knowing that what she had done was illegal among the Meyarins. So, she whispered, for Roka’s ears only, “I claimed him.” She winced at his horrified look and continued, louder, “He healed, just, but I passed out from it all, and when I woke up I was in my room at the palace again. We fought—he was pretty mad at me—and a bunch of other stuff happened, but eventually, he offered to train me—for the same reason you were training me—because, no offence or anything, I wasn’t learning a whole heap from you.  
  
“From then on, I spent all my spare time with him in the Silverwood. He woke me up early in the mornings, and we went out in the afternoons too. At the festival—”  
  
Roka took a shocked breath and she looked at him sharply. “Yes, we’re going to talk about this. At the festival, Aven wanted to talk to me, so we went out to the Golden Cliffs. He told me he loved me—” she winced as she said it,”—and I told him I didn’t feel the same way, especially since I knew I had to leave the next day. He stalked off, and I didn’t want to leave on those terms, and I followed so we could part as friends. A tree branch hit me in the face, and opened a small cut, which he saw. He saw the blood. Same as you did, I guess.  
  
“That was when he got so furious, when he realised that he had fallen for a mortal and that a mortal had deceived him. Niyx came to talk to me on the Golden Cliffs, and then he told me about the humans Aven had invited, and I realised that Aven was probably killing them. I rushed to the palace and Niyx arrived after me. He was with me when Aven killed the humans. He only went to the meetings to make sure Aven didn’t do anything stupid, just like you were.  
  
“I told him not to follow me, and then I ran into the palace to try to save you and your father. I knew the basic storyline of what was going to happen, but no one else realised that Aven was a threat. When I got there, Aven stabbed me and then the Zeltora came, so he was forced to flee. Niyx followed me anyway, and he carried me out of the palace and force-fed me laendra. He got me to Xira, and then fought the Zeltora so I would have enough time to get back to the present. He pled guilty, for me. So that I would have a spy close to Aven, someone that Aven thought was loyal to him.”  
  
Alex closed her eyes and let the guilt wash over her. She monitored everyone’s movements with her hearing, but all the Meyarins were dead silent. Even Roka remained still.  
  
She still couldn’t get over the fact that Niyx had sacrificed so much for her. Thousands of years of his life, wasting away in that prison, waiting. Waiting for her to come and get him.  
  
Alex took a deep breath, opened her eyes, and continued.  
  
“When I got back here, the first thing I did was find and release Niyx. He went to the palace, and he did _not_ kill the king, but he had to make it look like he had. Aven accepted him as his right-hand man because of it, and he was still training me in the present.  
  
“Has anyone told you about what happened at Graevale?” Alex asked, taking a breath. Roka nodded again. “Aes Daega was killed, and everyone’s memories returned, including Aven’s. He saw me there, and realised that I was still alive and whatever, so he tried to kill me. Niyx jumped in front of his blade aimed at me, and then Soraya, my Shadow Wolf, took us both to safety. Nothing I could do would save him. He died to save my life. He was _never_ a Garseth.”  
  
She looked at Roka, and noticed that his breathing had calmed some. “Everything I did before now, here, in the present, was real,” she said quietly. “It was exactly how I told you. I lied about nothing. I didn’t try to befriend you, knowing what I was the cause of. I only learned about that when I travelled to the past, when I was trying to understand a little more about why Aven became who he was and ended up causing more damage. As soon as I realised what I had done, I was horrified. You have to believe me. I am so sorry, Roka. I’m sorry.”  
  
There was silence for a few minutes while he processed all that she had just told him. Understanding that it was a lot, Alex gave him the time he needed.  
  
Alex glanced around at the Meyarins closing her in. Most of their expressions held disbelief, and she knew that it would take a lot to convince them to trust her. She looked at Kyia and Zain, and winced slightly at the hurt on their faces for not telling them the whole story.  
  
“We were going to tell you after Graevale,” she whispered to them. “But, after, it didn’t seem to matter anymore. And I couldn’t… it hurt too much.” She knew her expression was begging them to understand, and she couldn’t help it. Zain gave her a small nod, and Kyia blinked a few times, sighed and then gave her a tight smile. Alex turned back to face Roka again.  
  
After a few minutes of controlled breathing, he brought a hand up to drag down his face.  
  
“All these years, I’ve hated the nameless, faceless mortal who broke my brother’s heart and tricked him. I even understood, a little, why he was doing what he was doing. Not what, but why. I hated that mortal, and supported my father’s decision to hide Meya, because it would mean no more interactions with them.  
  
“When you and your friends turned up that day, my anger had cooled somewhat, and I was curious. You came with a warning, and I could accept that, and you were a mystery because you had managed to overcome Aven’s claim on you. But I never expected you to be more than a tool, than our spy on Aven.  
  
“Because you were supposedly our only way to defeat him, I decided to put aside my apprehension and agreed to work with you and train you. But I never really understood why you were so devoted to defeating him, especially after your _varrungard_. When Kyia and Zain told me about what they heard happened at Graevale and all you had done to warn the rulers and the other races, I wondered why you would care so much. But now, I am starting to understand, even just a little. And I can support you in that.”  
  
Alex felt the tension wrapped around her heart loosen, just the slightest little bit. Roka glanced at Kyia, and she walked over to wrap an arm around his middle. Roka leaned slightly into her.  
  
Watching them together for the first time since she had been in the past, Alex had the sudden urge to giggle as she compared their current embrace to how they had interacted when she first met them. But this was _not_ the time, and she pushed the thought down.  
  
Roka seemed to draw strength from Kyia’s presence and continued. “However,” he said, and Alex’s heart turned to ice in her chest. “It was still you that caused all this. You were still the mortal girl who deceived Aven, deceived all of us. Maybe if you had done things differently, we wouldn’t be here today.”  
  
Alex looked at him in shock. She had expected him to be angry at her, to be mad, but nothing like this. She opened her mouth to tell him what Aes Daega had told her about time travelling, about not being able to change it, how it had all technically already happened when she went back, that she’d had this conversation with Aes Daega, but Roka cut her off.  
  
“I think you have done enough for us, Alexandra Jennings. You should leave, and you are no longer welcome among us.”  
  
Alex rocked back on her heels. He was throwing her out? She looked to Kyia, then to Zain. Both looked sympathetic and sad, but neither was willing to contradict Roka. Maybe they would try to talk to him in private; maybe not. Right now, Alex didn’t care.  
  
She stood up as straight as she could, banished _Aenara_ , and, looking right at Roka, said, “I will never stop fighting to save Medora, to stop Aven. Both because it is my fault, and because it is the right thing to do. I will _never_ stop fighting. If you ever need my help, you know how to find me.”  
  
She turned, trying not to let the sight of Roka’s impassive face tear her down, and began walking. The Meyarins parted, and though no one tried to stop her, there were expressions of disgust on most faces. When she had moved out of the circle, she walked for the doorway back to the Library.  
  
_Don’t break down. Don’t cry yet_ , she told herself, keeping her shoulders thrown back and her head held high. Not one of the Meyarins followed her, and she heard the murmuring turn into louder and louder discussions.  
  
When she reached the doorway, she turned, looking out over the island with its dead flowers and small encampment. She committed the image to memory and opened the door.


End file.
